Dromore And Ardboe Must Do It All Again

Saturday 10.09.2011

Club

The two games in Omagh on Friday evening attracted a small enough crowd which was surprising considering the quality of the teams on show. The Intermediate tie turned out to be a very competitive game but Augher folk will feel it all turned on the decision to issue Aidan Mc Elroy with a second yellow card which did look very harsh from our vantage point. To their credit Stewartstown made great use of the extra man and their five unanswered points from the 55^th minute until the end of the match reflected their dominance of the game in those closing stages.

Teams need players who can score if they are to win such games and the Harps have several of those. Gareth Devlin, Peter Armor, Paul Dillon and Anton and Owen Coyle all produced the goods when the pressure was on. Unfortunately for Augher they lacked that ruthlessness in front of goals and they were overly dependent on Aidan Cassidy which ultimately cost them the game. However a late chance of a goal following a snap shot from Stephen Mc Caffrey might have snatched a draw for Augher but for the alertness of Greg Kelly in the Stewartstown goals.

Overall the winners deserved their victory and in spite of only coming up from Junior Football last year, they look like a side that have the capabilities to make life difficult for any team they face. The evening turned out to quite a celebration for Stewartstown as their successful Og Sport Ulster winning team were given the opportunity to parade their trophy in front of the very appreciative crowd.

The second game of the evening will probably be remembered for all the wrong reasons as it descended into a pulling and dragging match in the closing stages as Dromore pushed hard for an equalising score. The first half was closely fought and entertaining and when the Rossas reached the break a point and a man up having played against the wind, many neutrals would have fancied them to go on and win the match.

However the second half became somewhat attritional and in spite several super scores from Kyle Coney the standard of play failed to rise above mediocre. The closeness of the game kept it interesting and with both teams playing with fourteen men, the extra space meant there was always the potential for mistakes. Referee Cathal O’Hagan had his hands full as persistent fouling and gamesmanship extended the game well beyond the allotted extra time. This enabled Dromore to close a two point gap and deservedly earn a draw following Colm Mc Cullagh’s excellent equalising score with the last kick of the game.

In the end a draw was a fair enough result as neither team did enough to win and perhaps the extra game might even benefit both teams as they strive to get their hands on the O’Neill Cup. Hopefully the ill tempered last few minutes of Friday night’s game can be forgotten and both teams can produce a replay to entertain and excite next time out.